Tips for First-Year Teachers

The first year of many teachers’ careers is filled with stress, anxiety, mistakes, and breakthroughs! One major area that first-year teachers struggle with is classroom management. This can be scary for many new teachers since they are now in charge of an estimated twenty children, all day, for 180 days! To begin, it is a great idea to set up some sort of classroom database such as Google Classroom. Here, teachers can upload assignments, quizzes, articles, videos, and much more with ease. If a teacher uses a tool such as this, it is advised to lay everything out in advance – this way there isn’t any “last minute scrambling” going on. It is also a good idea to have a discipline plan ready. Many teachers use Class Dojo or Bloomz to show students how their behavior is and to communicate with parents! Communication is key when being a new teacher. Don’t be afraid to reach out to other teachers, staff, or parents. As far as your classroom goes, make sure that it has a good classroom climate. Ensure that all students and their cultures are showcased and respected, make accommodations for students with special needs such as visuals and “calming zones”, and make it fun and inviting for all students! As a first-year teacher, working with students that have special needs can be overwhelming. Make sure to have a library of resources that are ready to pull so that you can easily get ideas for adjusting instruction to meet your students’ needs. Lastly, just breathe!

Nearpod

Nearpod is a type of presentation software that educators can use to create a fun, engaging, and interactive classroom for their students. All teachers must do to begin their journey using Nearpod is create an account! Once an account is created for Nearpod, you have the option to choose between several different memberships. There is a free membership that allows you to create polls, interactive quizzes, open-ended questions, and other activities. Next, there is a membership for $120 that allows you to assign homework, take students on virtual field trips, and add various activities. Most importantly, teachers have the option to purchase the $350 membership which gives them complete access to thousands of ready-to-teach lessons for grades K-12. This allows teachers to spend less time worrying about having to create a Nearpod lesson for a particular lesson or topic! If I were to purchase a Nearpod membership, it would definitely be this one! Once teachers have their preferred membership to Nearpod and have a lesson ready to present to students, they give the students an access code. Students can access the lesson being presented with any device on-hand. During the lessons, the students will be able to draw, play with 3D objects, take quizzes, go on a virtual field trip, and much more. Teachers are able to decide whether they want students to stay on track with them or allow them to move the lesson at their own pace, with just the click of a button. This technology allows teachers to present material, keep students engaged in their learning, and quickly assess the students throughout the lesson! This is a great tool to have in the classroom. 

Student-Led Conferences and Digital Portfolios

Student-led conferences are becoming more prevalent in elementary schools across the nation.  A student-led conference is basically a student-centered meeting that takes place with teachers and parents while using a digital portfolio. During these conferences, students showcase different samples of their work that they have completed throughout the school year. These samples may be things that they are exceeding in, struggling with, or just extremely proud of. Throughout the process, the students are constantly taking the time to evaluate and reflect on their work. This aids in the learning of essential life skills such as self-reflection, leadership, communication, and responsibility for your own learning and work. Student-led conferences and digital portfolios and start out with one thing: goals. It is important that these goals are created and set by the students, not the teachers or parents. These goals can be academic, behavioral, or social. After the goals have been set, students complete and assess their work, then they reflect. The students are then able to explain this process to their parents and teachers. There are several advantages to student-led conferences and digital portfolios such as the students being able to see their progress first-hand, it is a form of authentic assessment, and it encourages parental involvement in the child’s education. However, we must think about downfalls such as parents not being involved, explicit instruction on the process, and the amount of time it takes to put this into effect. Aside from that, student-led conferences and digital portfolios are a great tool and have a positive impact on the entire learning community!

Personalized Learning with iPads

Personalized learning is a teaching method in which technology, activities, and assessments are tailored to meet the students’ individual needs and preferences. There are four key components of personalized learning: autonomy, competence, relatedness, and relevance. It is crucial that the learning environment is student-centered and their needs come first and foremost. When students can take charge and have a say in their learning, they become excited and proactive in the classroom! This can be easily integrated into the curriculum by taking a couple of simple steps. Teachers must be sure to focus on the students and their learning – not the tools being used or the grades. Also, it is beneficial to foster a growth mindset when using this type of instruction. This type of curriculum and learning environment has shown to produce powerful learners that are able to think critically and reflect on their learning. Also, the students get to know themselves better. They begin to realize their strengths and weaknesses, interests, and learning styles that are best suited for them. In this type of environment, students become partners with the educators and work together to come up with a curriculum that will ensure meaningful learning. As an educator, the key to success with personalized learning is getting to genuinely know the students! When we understand our students – their wants, needs, preferences, and learning styles – we can adjust our instruction to better suit them. As a result, they are interested in learning and grasp concepts in ways that may not have been able to do in the past!

SMORE: iPads for Teaching and Learning

Digital Storytelling

What is it? Digital storytelling is an activity, project, or assignment that teachers allow students to do so that they are able to showcase their work through digital storyboards. Children are able to use a variety of different of applications to create these digital masterpieces. What applications are good for digital storytelling? There are applications such as My Story, Tellegami, Toontastic, Sock Puppets, Book Creator, and many more! Students use these apps to create things using photos, videos, drawings, voice recordings, and a variety of other things to tell a story. For example, students may use Toontastic to create an animated story that they have written. Also, a student may choose to make a My Story while he or she walks us through the steps taken on a science project. The possibilities are endless! Why choose digital storytelling? Students are able to display their work in a way that is comfortable for them. Students that are timid and shy become to enjoy presenting things to their class and teachers. Also, parents and teachers enjoy seeing what the students have learned about a particular subject. There are so many reasons to incorporate digital storytelling into your classroom!

Below, I have attached one of my beginning creations that I have made with the Sock Puppet digital storytelling application!

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/s/?view=att&th=152aa4a24f2f29a0&attid=0.1&disp=attd&safe=1&zw

Here's to New Beginnings!

Let me begin by saying that I am beyond excited to embark on this journey in the Teaching Program at Jacksonville State University! Being a teacher has always been a profession that I both respect and admire. I think that the idea of myself becoming a teacher arose when I was in high school. My teachers devoted themselves to the success of all of their students. I vividly remember occasions when I needed help on things varying from derivatives in calculus to filling out the FAFSA. My teachers acted as both friends and parent-figures to those that needed them. I recall moments when I was truly amazed at how much these people cared for myself and many others. It did not matter how many times we said rude remarks, talked too much, did not complete our homework, or wanted to give up, our wonderful teaching staff came back every day with a goal to remind us how special and capable we were of accomplishing anything we set our minds to. My teachers were inspiring, thoughtful, passionate, and so many more words in the Webster's Dictionary that seem to undermine how incredible they really were. This is what drives me. I want to be someone who changes lives and gives children a reason to look forward to the future and what lies ahead of them. I want to take the wonderful gift my past teachers have blessed me with, knowledge, and pass it on to many more young students.